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Early life and Family

Allen's father, George Herbert Allen, was a legendary NFL coach with the Washington Redskins, Los Angeles Rams and Chicago Bears, who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2002 and Henrietta Lumbroso. He has a younger sister, Jennifer, an author and correspondent for NFL Network, and two brothers, including Bruce Allen, currently general manager of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Allen was born in Whittier, California. He and his family lived in there until 1957. They moved to the suburbs of Chicago after George Sr. got a job with the Chicago Bears. Allen's father was later named head coach of the Los Angeles Rams.

Education

Allen graduated in 1970 from Palos Verdes High School, where he was a member of the falconry club and the car club. He was also quarterback of the varsity football team. Allen attended the University of California, Los Angeles, for a year before transferring to the University of Virginia, in 1971, where he received a B.A. degree with distinction in history in 1974. He was class president in his senior year at UVA. After graduating, Allen completed a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1977. In 1976 he was the chairman of the "Young Virginians for Ronald Reagan".

Political career

After earning his law degree, Allen served as clerk for a federal judge and then opened a law office in Charlottesville. Allen's first race for the Virginia House of Delegates was in 1979, two years after he graduated from law school. He placed third in a field of four candidates. He ran again in 1981 and won the election. The seat he held was the same one held by Thomas Jefferson. He was a delegate from 1982 to 1991, representing a district in Albemarle County. On November 5, 1991, Allen won a special election to fill the seat in the United States House of Representatives for Virginia's 7th District with 63% of the vote. On November 1993, Allen was elected the 67th Governor of Virginia, serving from 1994 to 1998. Allen could not run for re-election because Virginia's constitution does not allow a governor to succeed himself; as of 2006 Virginia is the only state that has such a provision. Governor Allen was elected to the Senate in November 2000, defeating the Democratic incumbent, Chuck Robb. George Allen was the only Republican to unseat a Democratic incumbent that year. He served on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, the Foreign Relations Committee and the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Allen was frequently mentioned as a possible Republican candidate for the 2008 Presidential Election. However, his 2006 defeat for his Senate seat help derail his potential candidacy. On December 10, 2006, Allen gave an interview in which he stated that he would not seek the 2008 nomination.

Allen announced in January 2011 he would seek the Republican nomination for his former Senate seat. He faced Democrat Tim Kaine, the former Governor of Virginia and former Chair of the Democratic National Committee in the general election. Allen lost to Kaine receiving 47% of the vote.

On November 13, 2012, Allen held a press conference and announced that he has "no intention of running for office again."[1]

Political views

George Allen's political platform fits with that of the conservative wing of the Republican Party.

Controversy

On August 11, 2006, during his Senate reelection campaign, Allen used the word "macaca" to refer to S.R. Sidarth, who was filming the event as a "tracker" for the opposing Webb campaign. Sidarth is of Indian ancestry, but was born and raised in Fairfax County, Virginia. Macaca means "monkey" in some African nations. Allen apologized and said that he did not know the meaning of the word. Nevertheless, the liberal media exploited the incident and spent the rest of the campaign trying to prove that Allen was somehow a racist, even to the point of demanding that he state his ethnicity as a question in a campaign debate.